One man's voice Thoughts, rants and commentary of a simple man

When Christians go crazy

This morning at church my pastor told us of a story about a pastor in Illinois that was shot dead in front of his entire congregation this morning. Very little news was offered about this at the time but more information surfaced later that has brought about a little more information:

Investigators have charged a 27-year-old man with first-degree murder in the shooting of a pastor at a church in Maryville, Illinois, authorities said Monday.

...

Fred Winters, the pastor of the First Baptist Church, was shot and killed during an 8 a.m. service Sunday, and the attacker and two members of the congregation suffered knife wounds in the attack, authorities said.

Incidents like these are very difficult for me to wrap my mind around. I know that times get tough. I know some people have mental issues which would make something like this make sense to them. But I still get so flabbergasted by things like this because they make absolutely no sense to me at all.

Truth is I don't want to understand this. My heart goes out to the minister's family, those that were hurt directly by the incident and those that were affected both directly and indirectly by the incident. For those Christians out there that might be reading this, this is not a call to hole yourself up in your home and stop going to church. This is indeed an opportunity for you to put your faith into practice and step boldly into the throneroom of you God. Fear cannot be allowed to take hold of anyone in this.

I would ask that you join me in praying for that church, the pastor's family, the suspect, his family and everyone else that this has hit.